A leader must be confident enough to follow someone else when the situation calls for it. The book is divided into three parts. A good leader doesn’t blame subordinates for failures, they help subordinates win. Accomplishing the strategic mission is the highest priority. Every tactical level team leader must understand not just what to do but why they are doing it. When a leader sets such an example and expects this from junior leaders within the team, the mindset develops into the team’s culture at every level. Every individual and every team within the larger team gets to share in the success. The leader must pull the different elements within the team together to support one another, with all focused exclusively on how to best accomplish the mission. † Conditions apply. This creates friction that inhibits the overall team’s performance. By applying the following principles, the core building blocks of leadership, you can enable yourself to become an effective leader. Define and embrace the mission. He or she must maintain the ability to perform at the highest level and sustain that level for the long term. This is a difficult and humbling concept for any leader to accept. Since that time, they have trained countless leaders and worked with hundreds of companies in virtually every industry across the U.S. and internationally, teaching them how to develop their own high-performance teams and most effectively lead those teams to dominate their battlefields.Since it''s release in October 2015, Extreme Ownership has revolutionized leadership development and set a new standard for literature on the subject. In any chain of command the leadership must always present a united front to the troops. What separates them from most leaders is that they have led people in life-and-death situations. Perhaps the junior person has greater expertise in a particular area or more experience. While pushing to make your superior understand what you need, you must also realize that your boss must allocate limited assets and make decisions with the bigger picture in mind. They must impart this understanding to their teams. Detailing the mindset and principles that enable SEAL units to accomplish the most difficult combat missions, Extreme Ownership demonstrates how to apply them to any team or organization, in any leadership environment. Control your own Ego. But, a leader must control his or her emotions. The leader must explain not just what to do, but why. I think all of us know these at a gut level but practicing it consistently is the tougher part. A true leader is not intimidated when others step up and take charge. A leader must be brave but not foolhardy. The key word is clarity. Leaders should never be satisfied. Teams within teams are organized for maximum effectiveness for a particular mission, with leaders who have clearly delineated responsibilities. Resolute Fearlessness, Fortitude, Endurance: We Tell YOUR Story, “I had to take complete ownership of what went wrong. Don’t ask your leader what you should do, tell them what you are going to do. He or she must monitor and check the team’s progress in the most critical tasks. Everyone on the team must understand not only what do to, but why. A public display of discontent or disagreement with the chain of command undermines the authority of leaders at all levels. Total responsibility for failure is a difficult thing to accept, and taking ownership when things go wrong requires extraordinary humility and courage. Leaders must be free to move to where they are most needed, which changes throughout the course of an operation. What’s the mission? Stop Faking It: Why We Should All Be More Vulnerable at Work, Leadership Lessons from Bill Campbell, the Trillion Dollar Coach, How To Control Your Emotions During Conflict Resolution As A Leader, The business challenge of our time exists inside, not outside, These Feminine “Weaknesses” Are Actually Your Greatest Strengths. On any team, all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. Following this rule is crucial to the success of any team.

When in battle, they have to make split second decisions and the consequences of their […] Waiting for the 100 percent right and certain solution leads to delay, indecision, and in inability to execute. To ensure this is the case, senior leaders must constantly communicate and push information to their subordinate leaders. This is what Jim Collins called Level 5 leaders. Too much ego can drive individuals into greed which has always resulted in disaster for both the individual and organization. When plans and orders are too complicated, people may not understand them. It distills the essence of leadership into twelve principles. A leader must be attentive to details but not obsessed by them. Long complicated mission statements or strategy statements don’t work. A broad and ambiguous mission results in lack of focus, ineffective execution, and mission creep. Actions and words reflect belief with a clear confidence and self-assuredness that is not possible when belief is in doubt. A leader’s to-do list may be full but the only way to win is to prioritize.

If under-performers cannot improve, the leader must make the tough call to terminate them and hire others who can get the job done.

And they will not be able to convince others — especially the front-line people who must execute the mission — to do so. Those leaders must understand the overall mission, and the ultimate goal of that mission — the Commander’s Intent. There you have it the 12 principles of leadership which if followed can make you an outstanding leader. Jocko spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy SEAL Teams, starting as an enlisted SEAL and rising through the ranks to become a SEAL officer. Leaders must be humble but not passive; quiet but not silent. But when it goes too far, overconfidence causes complacency and arrogance, which ultimately set the team up for failure. When subordinates aren’t doing what they should, leaders cannot blame the subordinates. But, at the same time, to never show any sense of anger, sadness, or frustration would make the leader appear void of any emotion at all — a robot. Efficiency and effectiveness increases exponentially and a high-performance, winning team is the result. CLARITY AND BELIEF. Direct the execution of that solution, focusing all efforts and resources toward this priority task. Never engage in blame. You must brief to ensure the lowest common denominator on the team understands. This is the title of Jocko Willink’s latest book as well. Determining how much leaders should be involved and where leaders can best position themselves to command and control the team is key. This is an attitude in my opinion and can be applied to our personal lives as well. Replacing those people with better personnel is required. Willink and Babin returned home from deployment and instituted SEAL leadership training to pass on their harsh lessons learned in combat to help forge the next generation of SEAL leaders. Good leaders must welcome this, putting aside ego and personal agendas to ensure that the team has the greatest chance of accomplishing its strategic goals. Create checklists for planning, give clear directives to the team and empower key leaders to execute the plan. Ego clouds and disrupts everything: the planning process, the ability to take good advice, and the ability to accept constructive criticism. Tactical leaders must be confident that they clearly understand the strategic mission and Commander’s Intent.

Lay out in simple, clear, and concise terms the highest priority effort for your team. Repeat. Decentralized Command does not mean junior leaders or team members operate on their own program; that results in chaos. Outcomes are never certain; success never guaranteed.

But a leader must never grow so close to subordinates that one member of the team becomes more important than another, or more important than the mission itself. When overwhelmed, fall back upon this principle: Prioritize and execute. The front-line individuals never have as clear an understanding of the strategic picture as senior leaders might anticipate. Instead, the subordinate leader must use influence, experience, knowledge, communication, and maintain the highest professionalism. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. When leaders receive an order that they themselves question and do not understand, they must ask the questions: Why? Start with the mission. You and your team may not represent the priority effort at that particular time.

Twelve key principles of leadership, taken from the book “Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin Principle #1: Extreme Ownership. Leaders must always operate with the understanding that they are part of something greater than themselves and their own personal interests. Often, when smaller teams within the team get so focused on their immediate tasks, they forget about what others are doing or how they depend on their teams. There is no 100 percent right solution. It can even stifle someone’s sense of self-preservation. On any team, all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. The ability to take decisions during chaos is a key trait of effective leaders. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALS Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin Jocko Willink and Leif Babin are retired Navy Seal officers.